Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

i mox u on VW thred.

― Did you say you were going to mangle the light? (staggerlee), Monday, January 18, 2010 9:20 PM (5 minutes ago)

lol @ old conflating casual typing w/ lolcat speak. why don't you email this page to your aunt or something

think i'll just keep posting in "rapspeak", goof

i think it's straight-up wacky to say vw shares musical qualities with the jamosphere

AH CONFL8D U!

ive only heard that song by these guys that is in step-brothers at the start and it's so weird hearing them compared to Paul Simon and shit when that just sounds like a mid-90s ska-punk record.

Also horchata de chufas is a very nice drink, does that make me a wasp?!?!?!

bzzzzzzzzzzzz

yes jim if youve only heard a-punk not really sure if this discussion will be meaningful to you...

serious question tho: what is a "contra" in the last song? is it slang that i dont know, or is it just a word that means something to ezra?

up up down down b a b a select start

Srsly?

The Contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship. Although the Contra movement included a number of separate groups, with different aims and little ideological unity, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as by far the largest. In 1987, virtually all Contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance.

From an early stage, the rebels received both overt and covert financial and military support from the United States government through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), initially supplemented by the Argentine dictatorship of the time. At other times the US Congress wished to distance itself from the Contras and withdrew all overt support.

It's also a video game that young people play.

i think i would like this band more if they had a umlaut over the "a" and spelled it like "vampyre"

― Na'vi Girls (Need Love Too) (M@tt He1ges0n), Tuesday, January 19, 2010 10:21 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

would listen to

thank you for the history lesson alfred, and the video game matt, i am actually aware of both of those meanings of the word "contra"

believe max is asking abt what it means in the song particularly

so are jam bands pretty good but douchey i don't get it, dont wanna tuomas this to death but i don't wanna have to go away and listen to like five albums by phish b4 i can have an opinion on this 4 this thread. send me on my way is a great song tho

i appreciate that my inability to capitalize or use punctuation has led you to believe that i am very stupid though

uk version should be called probotector

it's a cipher you see, it means whatever you want it to mean

IKR u should move to NYC so we can start a band

doesn't ezra's "contra" just mean someone (a girl i assume) who's turned "against" him? but with (glib, irritating) political/historical reference thrown in just for fun.

eh really im asking because i have a halfway take on it but i dont want to embarrass myself by writing a thing and then having someone be all "lol @ u actually a contra is [meaning of slang term]"

surprised he didn't rhyme contra with sriracha to throw in more waspy signifiers

jam bands are kind of boring and vanilla; that is the thing about them. also they don't have "songs" per se, they have "jams"

hey max i think you are smart fwiw : )

i figured u just wanted to show off how much u know about video games ;-)

They've said their use of "contra" denotes someone who's disagreeable and pessimistic.

here i have c&pd the lyrics - noticed it has the word revolution in it - seems like tipsys prob right

I had a feeling once
That you and I
Could tell each other everything
For two months
But even without hope
With truth on our side
When you turn away from me
It's not right

I think you're a Contra
I think you're a Contra
And dear Contra
I think you're a Contra

My revolution thoughts
Live in lies of desire
I wanna trace them to the source
And the wire
But it's not useful now
Since we both made up our minds
You gotta watch out for yourself
So will I

I think you're Contra
I think that you lie
Don't call me Contra
Till you've tried

You wanted good schools
And friends with pools
You're not a Contra
You wanted Rock' n' Roll,
Complete control
Well, I don't know

Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you
Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you

I think you're Contra
I think that you lie
Don't call me Contra
Till you've tried

should have used "debbie downer" instead IMO

jam bands are kind of boring and vanilla; that is the thing about them. also they don't have "songs" per se, they have "jams"

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, January 19, 2010 2:36 AM (1 second ago) Bookmark

so like uh, balearic then?

max i would like to hear your theory

tons of bands that don't have "songs" are rad as shit

lol like balearic + 15 years of guitar lessons

IKR u should move to NYC so we can start a band

― max, Tuesday, January 19, 2010 2:35 AM (2 minutes ago)

nobody ever says "i shud move to the west of ireland so we can start a band"

"Contra" also rhymes with "horchata" in the kind of Dickinson-esque slant rhyme that college grad Ezra Koenig would have studied.

i know matt not having songs was not part of the value judgement

You wanted good schools
And friends with pools
You're not a Contra
You wanted Rock' n' Roll,
Complete control
Well, I don't know

Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you
Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you

eh i dont really have a theory im just interested in these lyrics w/r/t some of the things being bandied about in this thread--class signifiers, privilege, contrarianism/"trolling", "indie rock"

this band would be better if they didn't have songs IMO like were more jammy and didn't have lyrics or singing and had more horns and thumb pianos and buzzy synth shit and had a rad rhythm section and horns and were like super funky and trippy.

like if they were Nomo and not Vampire Weekend.

but Nomo is just band geeks from Michigan and wouldn't be that cool to breakdown on threads like these.

CONTRArianism/"trolling"

It's threads like these that make me wish...Momus was still here. ;_;

nomo has no class signifiers iirc

one other thing that didnt get pointed out when we were all being snotty abt the 96-pt futura bombs lyric upthread is how funnily and gleefully it plays w/ signifiers--i really dig the way that couplet pops up in the song

it also feels a kind of snide little "fuck you" to m.i.a.

what is the m.i.a. reference?

neon design-y war shit

maybe "fuck you" is a little strong--a snide little wink at m.i.a.

is that an example of works being 'in dialogue' with each other

"fuck you" would be too down market

WASPs dont curse, except at the help

if they serve horchatas to contras.

I assumed that in the context of the song "contra" meant a kind of rebel-against-everything, someone who is consciously going about to contradict or oppose all of the received wisdoms they're surrounded by.

So the chorus accusation "I think you're a contra" is kind of saying "I think you're just doing this for its own sake and there's nothing deeper going on".

And then when he starts talking about wanting good schools etc. and says "you're not a contra" he means "in fact you weren't even doing that, not deep down. Ultimately you wanted everything that your parents wanted for you." The rock & roll / complete control couplet to me means "you want it both ways, really" and the "well I don't know" bit means "I don't think that's possible ultimately".

Then the final bit is maybe saying that (back then) the singer would have gone along with whatever position you wanted to take in order to be with you.